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Team GB Men Secure Second Win on Day Two of Curling At the Olympics

Posted on 15 February 2018

Team GB’s men’s curlers secured their second win of the round robin tournament when they beat Japan 6-5 with the final stone of their match. The men’s GB team were leading 3-1 by the third end and the fourth was blanked before an exchange of singles over the next two ends. However the rink led by Yusuke Morozumi claimed a two at the seventh which looked to change the momentum of the match. Kyle Smith’s rink had to rally and a single at the eighth proved critical. Their opponents were held to a single at the next and in the final end Smith’s team mates cleared the house leaving the skip to make the draw for the win.

Thomas Muirhead who has played with Kyle Smith for eight years since they were 14 years old, said after their win: “Our job was to give Kyle the best opportunity with the last stone and he did the business.”

“It was a good game and we played well from start to finish compared to yesterday. We learned a lot from the first two games about the ice conditions and that was a good team performance.

“The Canada defeat was a bit of a wake-up call and we aren’t going to get away with playing like that. We had to improve and we definitely did. We felt a lot more in control out there.

Coach Viktor Kjell was pleased with the team’s performance and the improvements they are making.

“We were in good control and that’s our best game yet. I wasn’t nervous for that last stone, I know how good Kyle is and how good his sweepers are,” said Kjell.

Team Smith will now play Sweden’s Team Edin, former team mates of the their coach Kjell and the rink they lost out to at the European Championships in St Gallen in November last year, which enabled Edin’s rink to claim the title for the fourth time in a row.

Commenting on that final with the Swedish quartet, Muirhead added: “That loss will spur us on and we’d like a bit of revenge, it’s not a special game because of what happened at the Europeans, it’s just another game. We’ve beaten them before and if we put it together then we won’t be far away.”

Muirhead will be hoping the men’s team performance inspires sister Eve and the rest of the GB women to success as they take on China in the next game.